Category: Nintendo

All eyes are on the Nintendo Switch this year, as well they should be. Nintendo has been in a weird place with home consoles over the last decade. The Wii exploded onto the scene as a gimmicky toy, then quickly collected dust in everyone’s closest. The Wii U failed to capture an audience at all, reaching only 10% of the sales of its predecessor. Launching earlier this year, the Switch is faring much better, including a killer app like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and featuring full portability.

It’s the portability that had me worried about my favorite Nintendo product of this century: the Nintendo 3DS. With the announcement and launch of the Switch, I had concerns over how Nintendo’s handheld-only console would fare when stacked up with a device that could do both.

Turns out my concerns were completely unfounded. The six-year old Nintendo 3DS is having its best year ever in 2017.

The Monster Hunter series has been around for over a decade, though far more popular in Japan than in the US. The world of gigantic monsters, challenging combat, and hours of grinding and crafting weapons and armor often remains impenetrable for many would-be fans.

Monster Hunter Stories refreshingly succeeds at being a more intuitive, kid-friendly spin-off game. It incorporates basic elements of Pokémon’s monster-collecting while still using the core tenets of Monster Hunter’s questing and hunting tasks to create a welcoming, yet deeply rich experience.

Ever Oasis was a surprise announcement at E3 2016, an entirely new IP on the Nintendo 3DS. Though it presents a unique new desert world, Ever Oasis borrows all of its gameplay elements from other successful Nintendo franchises, such as Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Metroid.

The result is a satisfying though at times tedious adventure that brings a fun mix of party-based combat with maintaining a thriving refuge in a dangerous world.

The Fire Emblem series has exploded in the last few years. The tactical role-playing series has been around since the 90s, but only in the U.S. since 2003. With Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia we’re already getting our third Fire Emblem game for the Nintendo 3DS – but it’s actually a remake of 1992’s Fire Emblem Gaiden.

Playing the remake of the second game in the storied franchise with updated sprites, 3D dungeon crawls, polished voice acting, and anime cutscenes is an incredible treat for any Fire Emblem fan.

The Cooking Mama series has been around since the days of Nintendo DS and Wii. Touchscreen mobile games were burgeoning into a dominant gaming genre for many kids and adults. These days playing a game on the Nintendo 3DS that could be almost entirely replicated on a phone feels quaint.

Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop doesn’t offer enough new gameplay or progression to warrant yet another installment in the franchise.

While The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time could be considered the prototype for open-world adventures, the genre really didn’t take off until MMORPGs and RPGs like Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series embraced giant 3D worlds. These days nearly every big game is an open world adventure, and it’s become more of a rote expectation.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild redefines what it means to be an open-world adventure, creating a vast frontier of possibility. Ocarina of Time remains one of my all time favorite games, and I’m here to tell you that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best 3D Zelda game ever made.